Why can't I get fibre?

This is probably a really silly question. I'm trying to sign up for fibre broadband at my new address, which I was told was available, and all the main ISPs (BT, Sky, TalkTalk etc etc) are only offering me standard "basic broadband" packages with very "old school" speeds - normally around 5-10Mbps, rather than the 40-50Mbps you might expect from fibre.

I originally wanted to sign up with Zen and thought it was their issue when their availability checker came back with basic broadband only, but I've tried several different checkers and all of them come back with the same result. What's the deal here? Apologies for what is probably a stupid question, but I'm baffled...!

It may be there is a waiting list, try this link and see what options you get.

Broadband Availability Checker

I typically only populate the post code and captcha and select the property on the next page.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Sep-21 14:38:07)

You're right - "waiting list" is what it says under "WBC FTTC Availability Date" and "SOGEA FTTC Availability Date".

What does it mean? Do I have to stick with ye olde ADSL broadband at my new address?

It means that you can join the 'Waiting List' for Openreach to upgrade the capacity in the cabinet or, if that is full, to install a new cabinet.

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

You're right - "waiting list" is what it says under "WBC FTTC Availability Date" and "SOGEA FTTC Availability Date".

What does it mean? Do I have to stick with ye olde ADSL broadband at my new address?

It may be possible to get better speeds using the mobile telephone signal. Lots of advice in this Forum about that.

In reply to a post by Grimers:

It means that you can join the 'Waiting List' for Openreach to upgrade the capacity in the cabinet or, if that is full, to install a new cabinet.

Gordon Bennett! You'd think this would be a solved problem in 2021. The cabinet is some distance away from what I understand, so if it's serving my new address it's probably serving an awful lot of people in a large radius.

In reply to a post by Grimers:

It means that you can join the 'Waiting List' for Openreach to upgrade the capacity in the cabinet or, if that is full, to install a new cabinet.

My understanding is that the few ISP's, like for example Aquiss, that previously supported the "Waiting List" process have basically suspended it now, due to the incredibly high number of cabinets (in excess of 25%) that are now full.

I wonder why it's become full? There haven't been a lot of new houses built in the area as far as I'm aware - my new house is of 1970s vintage, and that's one of the newer properties in the vicinity. Did they not anticipate that everyone in an area would want broadband when they built out the network?

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

I wonder why it's become full?

Working from Home during lockdown accounted for a massive percentage getting full.

Surprisingly, during lockdown, nearly 40% of our orders were from customers who reportedly never had a fixed line connection before, with employers insisting that they needed something fixed, rather than mobile. If this was playing out industry wide (and I suspect it was) then cabinets simply used up all available predicted capacity.

In reply to a post by autumnbreeze:

Did they not anticipate that everyone in an area would want broadband when they built out the network?

Quite simply no. They would never provision VDSL ports on a 1:1 basis with property connections. “Special circumstances” the last 18 months or so, and et voila!